While I was taking a college class in 2009, I had to interview someone and write a paper about them. I had the honor of interviewing Lorus Adrian Haacke. It was a day that I will never forget. He told Troy and I stories about while he was serving in the Navy during WWII. Some of those stories he had never told before because they were too horrific. Those he asked that I not include in the report, so out of respect for him, I left them out. Just know that some of the things he saw and went through are things that nobody should have to. The following is my report...
Imagine yourself in the middle of World War II (WWII). You are in the navy and have pulled up on a beach. You see a lieutenant walking along with two of his privates. The next thing you know you hear loud gunfire and see the lieutenant and two privates lying dead on the sand, having been shot by Japanese snipers hiding in the tops of coconut trees. This is just one of the many memories of Lorus Adrian Haacke.
Lorus Adrian Haacke, lovingly referred to as Bud, is a WWII veteran. He was born on December 26, 1924 to loving parents and had four siblings; three brothers and one sister. He was raised in a humble home in Woods Cross, Utah. While growing up he attended school, worked on farms, and had a paper route.
When Bud graduated from Davis High School on May 21, 1943, at the age of 18, he had a major decision to make. America was entangled in WWII so he had to either enlist in the branch of military he wanted, or be drafted and let the government decide. He chose to enlist with the navy on June 1, 1943. He had two older brothers that were navy men as well. While making his decision, some people came to his mother and said they could get him a deferment to stay, since he was the youngest son, and could work on the farm or ranch. Bud said, "No. I'm not about to hide behind any cow to get out of the service."
When asked if he ever had second thoughts, Bud firmly replied, "No. I never had second thoughts. At that time you didn't have a choice. You had to defend your country. They had bombed Pearl Harbor and I did what I had to do. You hope you never have to, but I never had a second thought about it." Bud believed in the war and what he was fighting for.
When Bud first joined the navy he went to basic training in San Diego, California. When he finished with basic training he went to diesel school, also in San Diego. In diesel school he learned diesel mechanics and how to maintain and keep the ship running. When he finished his schooling he went to Stockton, California overnight and caught a Liberty ship to Noumea New Caledonia. The voyage took 18 days. The feeling aboard the ship was depressing and the stench of body odor was horrific. There was no fresh water. They had to shower with salt water pumped into the ship. Bud told his mother if the trip back was the same he didn't want to come back. After, he caught a death ship to Guadalcanal and stayed at the Navy base in Telogy for two weeks. At that point he was assigned to the ship he would spend the remainder of his naval service on.
It was extremely hard for Bud to leave his family. He didn't have any "special someone" at the time, but had to leave his parents, one brother, and one sister. His two other brothers were already out serving. It was especially hard on his parents. When the boys wrote home they weren't able to disclose locations; for if the mail was intercepted it would give coordinates away. It was especially hard with Bud because; of the three brothers, he was the only one in the war zone. One of his brothers was stationed on dry docks; the other at the naval air academy in California. When his parents wrote Bud, the mail was sent to San Francisco and disbursed from there. It took a long time for him to receive it.
Bud was assigned to the ship USS Titania (AKA-13). This was an amphibious cargo ship. The ship carried landing crafts, barges, tanks, trucks, jeeps, etc. as well as Marines to drop off on the beaches. They had around 350 men on the ship, plus an additional 25 or 26 per barge. Bud, along with the others assigned to the USS Titania, went all over the South Pacific. At any given time they were out at sea for 2-3 weeks at a time. He got sea-sick a lot at first, but after getting used to being on the ship he only got sick a few times.
Bud's rank was Motor Machinist 2nd Class. His job entailed maintaining the boat, keeping the motor running, dropping the ramp, and holding cover fire while the Marines exited the ship. He also occasionally drove, but never during an invasion. He was ordered to shoot any Marine who did not exit the ship. When they landed and dropped the ramp the Marines were to leave the ship onto the beaches immediately. If they hesitated they were to be ordered off and then shot if they didn't go because the ships were to drop off and ship out as quickly as possible to keep them from coming under fire. Luckily for Bud the Marines felt more comfortable on land and were always glad to leave the ship. He did, however, have to shoot a .30 Caliber Machine Gun quite a bit as cover fire for the Marines as they exited the ship.
When asked what his best experience was, Bud simply replied, "There are no good experiences in war." Every time they landed they went in what was called "waves." A wave is a landing craft. The first wave always took the troops. The waves were about 2 minutes apart. You never wanted to hit the beaches before a specified time. If you hit even five minutes before you would be attacked by friendly fire, and if you went five minutes after you would get caught in the Japanese fire. You had to be very careful and accurate with your timing. They had to maneuver through dead bodies floating all over in the water. "The worst smell in the world is that of baking, bloated, water-logged, decaying flesh," Bud said, while wrinkling his nose at the memory of that stench. The dead bodies were all over the beaches as well as in the water. There is a great sadness about Bud as he recalls the stories of the war.
The first time he saw combat was off the Guadalcanal. There was a group of islands called Emeru. This was Bud's first landing, which was very exciting and a little scary. There were not a lot of attacks from the land, but there were plenty of air attacks. They met so much resistance that they had to pull back and wait a month before going to Guam. When I asked if that scared him he replied, "We all felt it was a job you had to do. Not much fear. It was just a day to day thing you had to do."
The first time he saw wounded was in Guam. "I saw a lot of wounded American service men. Usually in the convoy the hospital boat was painted white. We used to take the wounded off the beach in Guam on a stretcher to the landing craft and take them to the hospital ship." With the invasion of Guam they were 4 or 5 days on the beach. "The Japs would come at you with their mortars and drop their mortars around you and you'd have to back off the beach and wait till they stopped then go back in and keep doing that until you finished unloading the supplies. That is where we met the most resistance." Most places they would land the troops then go back to the ship for supplies and bring them back. It would usually take about 3 or 4 days.
He didn't see many Japanese but he saw a lot of mortar fire from them. Their ship was never hit. The Japanese would hide in caves. They would come out to shoot a them then return to hiding. US Marines would take flame throwers and put them in the mouths of the caves, burning the Japanese alive.
The Japanese had what they called "suicide swimmers." They would tie explosives on to their backs and hide under boxes. There were always a lot of boxes and debris floating on the water. Then they'd swim out and strap their back against one of these ships. Several ships went down through the night after the first invasion because of these suicide bombers.
In the Lingayen Gulf, when they would go in waves, they would keep the landing craft in forward gear and keep it idle. When the wave behind you came in it would push you forward and leave a sandbar. When the Marines would get out, sometimes they would fall between the sandbars and think they were going to drown. On one such occasion, Bud jumped in to help one of them. When he got close to him the man was trying to grab for him and Bud knew that if he pulled him then they would both go down, so he said to the man, "Do you want to live?" The man said yes, so Bud told him to put his feet down and walk out of there. So the man did and they both made it to the sandbar.
At first they were hitting every island, but then someone got the idea to bypass some. So, a lot of the islands they bypassed, but isolated those by getting all of the surrounding ones. This cut off their supply so the Japanese had to either fend for themselves or die.
"On Lady Island the Japanese had pill boxes all over the island that were manned with machine guns. So we went back out to the ship and got bull-dozers. We took them back to the island. US Marines drove the bull-dozers with the blades up and when they got in front of the pill boxes they dug down and picked them up then dumped and buried them; burying the Japanese alive." Also on Lady Island, Bud was on the 3rd or 4th wave of boats that hit. This is how Bud recalls one of the only times he really felt scared...
"Japs had artillery shells. One hit right in front of us and splashed water on all of us. My thought was that we were all dead because now we were in their range and the next one would hit right in the middle of our boat. Luckily, that was the last artillery shell fired at us. The first wave must have gotten to them or something because that was the last one. That was one of the only times I felt scared."
They went on and hit the beach. Bud lowered the ramp and let the troops off. The first wave hit 2-3 minutes before Bud's and he watched them plant the first US flag in the sand. They could hear the machine guns all around and see bullets hit the water. They wanted to drop the troops off and get out of there.
Another story he recalls was a close call. There was a kamikaze pilot about 30-40 feet in the air above them. They hit it and it started to fall and burst into flames. They had to go through the flames. Subs were also launching torpedoes at them. He was in Borneo helping some Australians during the Iwo Jima and Okinawa invasions.
Bud had been in the Philippines, in Subic Bay. They left and were headed back to America to pick up more troops. Somewhere in the middle is when he heard the news. It was about 12 o'clock at night. Bud had just gotten off watch and they said that the war was over. They were all extremely excited about it. They went and stayed one night in Hawaii and then went to Bremerton, WA to the dry dock there. While in Hawaii, they were offered to get off the ship in Liberty to look around, but Bud was so anxious to get back that he remained.
As soon as they arrived in Bremerton they were given a 30-day leave. That was in September of 1945. When the ship got out of dry dock they went from Washington down to Long Beach, California. This was in January of 1946. Bud had enough points to be discharged in March 1946. On February 15th, however, he was sent off to the Philippines and they extended his discharge out another 90 days. He was finally honorably discharged on May 21, 1946. He also received five medals.
I asked Bud how war has affected his life and his response was as follows, "WWII we had to do. We had been attacked and we had to defend our country. The Korean and Vietnam wars weren't ever really declared wars and I don't really think we did any good. We would take a hill and the next day give it back, over and over again. I feel sorry for those who had to fight in them." As for how he feels about the war today, he thinks they are a waste of time and we never should have gotten into it.
Bud lost a few friends in the war, but was never injured himself. If given the chance he would do it all over again, given the same conditions. He wouldn't want to, but he would. He wouldn't encourage anyone to enlist, but he wouldn't discourage them either.
When Bud first returned he had flashbacks of the war, but over time they went away. He doesn't like to talk about it because it brings up a lot of bad memories. He does, however, like to show you his Japanese invasion money that he got while he was out there.
Bud says that he is proud to be an American and we need to make it better for our kids and our grandkids. He is married to the love of his life, Carol Haacke, with three children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren that he is very proud of.
When you ask, "Who is Lorus Adrian Haacke?" I will proudly answer, "He is an extraordinary WWII veteran whom I am proud to call my grandpa."